It was the Annual Meltdown. That time when England topple from their pedestal
and hit rock bottom.

In the Dubai Test, Pakistan played with all the discipline that has been England's hallmark under Andrew Strauss's captaincy, except for those Annual Meltdowns. England batted, in both innings, like Bangladesh on a bad day.

This has been England's pattern under Strauss: a trough that reminds us he does not have any truly great cricketers in his team, followed not long afterwards by a peak.

The previous meltdown had been at Perth in December 2010 when England lost by an innings and plenty. In January, at the start of that year, they had lost in Johannesburg by a similar margin on another pacy pitch, while in 2009 at Kingston they had been turned over by West Indies – the modern, lowly West Indies – for 51.

Each time Strauss has pulled his team together and led them forward, even though they lost that initial series against West Indies.

And along the way the defining, initiative-seizing innings has been played more often by Strauss than anyone else.

Whether he can do so yet again, after the latest embarrassing meltdown, depends on two main factors: whether he can play Pakistan's spin, and whether he has another major Test innings – a Test hundred – left in him.

An emphatic yes has to be the answer to the question about whether he can play Saeed Ajmal and his fellow spinners. Only one England batsman has scored two centuries in a Test in Asia, and that was Strauss in December 2008, on a Chennai pitch that turned far more copiously than Dubai's, and against Harbhajan Singh and the modest Amit Mishra.

But what Strauss is not skilful enough to do – or any of the other England batsmen, except perhaps Kevin Pietersen or Ian Bell on fire – is to force the pace against spin on these slow pitches. This is what Strauss tried to do in Dubai, but did not attempt in Chennai, when he fixed on three scoring shots and waited for the right ball to play them.

In his first innings here he tried to force the pace, critically, playing a hoick that did not merit the title of pull. But you can see why: he did not want the spinners to drag England into quicksand, and tried to lead from the front, too selflessly perhaps, instead of batting in the manner that suited him best.

Earlier in the over in which Strauss got out, he had tried a sweep against Ajmal and missed. Had he not been captain, he would have heeded this warning and blocked out Ajmal's over for a maiden, without fretting. Instead, as the gallant commander, he went for an even higher-risk shot, in an echo of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Look at the run-rates of some of England's other batsmen and you can see why Strauss tried to avert the danger. Alastair Cook scored eight runs in the match from 61 balls, Pietersen two singles off 37 balls, and Bell four off 16 balls. That amounts to 14 runs by three usually excellent batsmen off 114 balls, or 19 overs, in Operation Headed Nowhere.

Strauss had scored 25 runs from 59 balls before his dubious second innings dismissal, given caught down the legside. Strange to relate, on the replay screen on the ground the Hot Spot showed up clearly, even brightly, on his trousers – but not on television screens.

In Abu Dhabi Strauss has to bat less ambitiously against Pakistan's spinners, getting himself and England's other batsmen – save Jonathan Trott – into this series. From the present dire position Strauss might have to settle for a pragmatic draw there, then press for a series-levelling win back in Dubai.

Then comes the second question. Has Strauss, who has scored one Test century in the past 30 months, got another left in him, now he is a month away from turning 35?

His self-belief will surely decide. He had a hard time last summer, passing 50 only once, but it was difficult for the opening batsmen of both sides in the India series last summer and in the Pakistan series of 2010. There was only one century for England's opening batsmen in each of those series, both by Cook, and two by India's makeshift opener Rahul Dravid.

That Strauss made his career-best score in first-class cricket only in September, 241 not out against Leicestershire, suggests the appetite is not sated and his age not insuperable. But, ultimately, it will hinge on his self-belief whether Strauss keeps the England captaincy until 2013, maybe to become the first to win the Ashes three times.